Why Has No One Been Prosecuted In Death Of Justine Ruszczyk?

It sure sounded like a cut-and-dry case. A woman bent over, conversing with police at the driver’s side window when the officer in the passenger seat pulled his weapon and shot her. It horrified Americans and spun the whole debate over #BlackLivesMatteron its head, all because Ruszczyk was white.

Months later, no one has been charged in what seemed like the biggest slam dunk out there.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told a group of union members Wednesday that he does not have enough evidence to decide yet whether he’ll file charges against Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, and he blamed “investigators” for not doing their jobs.

Noor fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk from the passenger seat of his squad car through the driver’s side window after he and his partner, officer Matthew Harrity, responded to a 911 call on July 15.

Ruszczyk, known professionally as Justine Damond, had called police to report that she thought she’d heard a woman yell for help outside her home in Minneapolis’ Fulton neighborhood, telling the 911 operator she was worried someone was being attacked.

Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar posted the prosecutor’s conversation with a group of union members during the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation holiday reception Wednesday night on the activist group’s Facebook page.

Freeman’s remarks came after one of the activists asked him why he hadn’t yet announced charges in the case against Noor.

“I’ve got to have the evidence and I don’t have it yet. And let me just say, it’s not my fault,” Freeman said in the video. “So if it isn’t my fault, who didn’t do their jobs? … Investigators, and they don’t work for me. And they haven’t done their job.”